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As the constitutional accord collapsed, Brian Mulroney blamed the Liberals for “a colossal deceit and betrayal of the country,” newly released records say.

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney makes a pitch in the House of Commons June 20, 1990, to pass a resolution urging Manitoba and Newfoundland to pass the Meech Lake accord. When Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells refused to put the accord to a vote in his legislature, Mulroney told his ministers that Wells "had broken his word." (CHUCK MITCHELL / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Jim BronskillJoan BrydenThe Canadian Press

Sun., March 23, 2014

OTTAWA—Huddled with his cabinet colleagues in the spring of 1990 as the Meech Lake constitutional accord collapsed, Brian Mulroney lashed out at Pierre Trudeau and other Liberals for engaging in “a colossal deceit and betrayal of the country,” newly released records say.

“He said that the Meech Lake accord had been obstructed and undermined by people who thought they had the right to govern forever,” say the minutes of the June 22, 1990 meeting.

Trudeau had helped sow the seeds of the accord’s eventual destruction, branding it a sellout to the provinces and calling Mulroney a “weakling.”

The Canadian Press fought for four years to obtain the minutes of cabinet meetings from the first half of 1990, when the tense Meech Lake drama played out.

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The Meech accord was intended to meet Quebec’s conditions for embracing the Constitution, patriated in 1982 over the objections of the province’s then-separatist government. Among other things, the accord would have constitutionally recognized Quebec as a “distinct society.”

First ministers agreed to the pact in 1987 but public opposition and subsequent provincial elections — which ensconced anti-Meech premiers in Newfoundland and New Brunswick and a minority government in Manitoba — put the accord’s fate in jeopardy as the three-year deadline for unanimous provincial approval approached.

Mulroney’s emotional summation came just after Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells refused to put the accord to a vote in his legislature. The agreement expired at midnight the following day — it lacked the approval of Newfoundland and Manitoba.

“(Wells) had broken his word,” Mulroney told his ministers.

“With respect to Quebec, the prime minister noted that Premier Wells had in effect done the work of Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Chrétien. He described Premier Wells as Mr. Trudeau’s agent. Mr. Chrétien, hopeful of shortly gaining the Liberal leadership, had been silent,” the minutes say.

“The people of Quebec, he said, would see clearly that the work of Newfoundland was linked to the activities of Mr. Chrétien and that all of this in turn was linked back to the influence of Mr. Trudeau.”

Mulroney wanted all ministers to have a copy of a June 9 agreement, in which Wells had agreed to put the accord to a vote, so that they could clearly explain who was to blame.

Looking back, Norman Spector, secretary to the cabinet for federal-provincial affairs at the time, noted in an interview that pointing a finger is a way of deflecting blame from oneself. “Clearly, Mr. Mulroney was devastated.”

Chrétien easily won the federal Liberal leadership the day after Mulroney’s diatribe in cabinet.

“As for the Liberal convention currently going on in Calgary, the prime minister noted that the Liberal party had participated in a colossal deceit and betrayal of the country,” say the minutes.

Release of the records comes amid a Quebec election campaign, with the governing Parti Quebecois seeking a majority mandate and flirting with the prospect of the province’s third sovereignty referendum.

Very little of the cabinet material was disclosed in an initial 2010 response to an Access to Information request from The Canadian Press, although cabinet records are eligible for release after 20 years.

A complaint to the federal information commissioner recently helped dislodge scores of pages. However, some of the records remain secret due to concerns about sensitive matters.

The cabinet minutes vividly chronicle the accord’s slow-motion collapse as the June 23 deadline loomed closer.

Among Mulroney’s front-benchers, John Crosbie, then international trade minister, appears to have had the most realistic assessment of the situation, repeatedly warning fellow ministers it was unlikely Wells could ever be brought on side.

While his cabinet colleagues discussed plans to “orchestrate pro-Meech opinion” after introduction of a companion resolution meant to mollify holdout provinces, Crosbie “remained very pessimistic about the passage of the Meech Lake accord because Premier Wells would not be persuaded not to rescind Newfoundland’s approval,” according to the minutes of a March 20 meeting.

In an interview, Crosbie said his cabinet colleagues underestimated Wells, who became premier just as Ottawa and the province were engaged in delicate negotiations over offshore oil and gas revenue-sharing.

Crosbie recalled saying when he phoned to congratulate Wells: “Now Clyde, I hope to Christ you’re not going to go shagging around and cause trouble on the Meech Lake agreement. We’ve got a lot at stake here.

“But Clyde told me, ‘Well, there’s nothing more important than the Constitution’ … So I knew from the beginning that he was going to be very difficult to deal with.”

Mulroney held out hope Wells could be brought to heel if he wound up as the lone holdout. “(He) thought there was little chance that Newfoundland could hold out against all the rest of Canada,” according to the minutes of an April 26 meeting.

As the clocked ticked down, Mulroney was adamant that failure would be all Wells’ fault, even though the accord was also stalled in Manitoba, where MLA Elijah Harper — acting on behalf of native leaders who were staunchly opposed to the accord — filibustered the legislature to prevent a vote.

“The prime minister indicated that if the accord died, it would die at the hands of the Liberal party represented by Premier Wells and not at the hands of aboriginal people through delays in the Manitoba legislature,” according to the minutes of the June 22 meeting.

Wells ultimately refused to put the accord to a vote, arguing that it would serve no purpose since the accord had already failed to pass in Manitoba.

Blaming Wells for killing Meech — and ignoring Manitoba’s role — may not have been fair, but “there’s no fairness in politics,” Crosbie says now.

Still, he believes Wells “was the principal person leading all of the forces against the Meech Lake accord ... If he hadn’t been dead against it, it would’ve gone through.”

As for Mulroney’s contention that Wells was the agent of Trudeau and Chrétien, Crosbie scoffs: “Clyde Wells would not have done anyone’s bidding.

“If Lord Jesus himself had come down to Earth and asked Clyde to support the Meech Lake thing, Clyde would not have supported it. He had his mind made up and when Clyde decided and made his mind up, that was it.”

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